Explore the experiences of prisoners as they reenter society after release from incarceration. You can learn more about how a history of incarceration affects prisoner's lives including their families, the communities they return to, and their employment prospects.
Use the three scholarly research articles posted below to help you answer the research question through the final project assignments.
APA Citation
Explore the BP oil spill and the ways that environmental sociology can help us understand and explain how the spill happened and how it has affected both marine ecosystems and the lives of residents along the Gulf of Mexico.
Use the two scholarly research articles and one ebook from the PSCC Library posted below to help you answer the research question through the final project assignments.
APA Citation
Understand the experiences of undocumented youth growing up in the United States. Lacking legal citizenship, these young people live their lives in a world governed by politics and policies they have no control over.
Use the one scholarly research article and two ebooks from the PSCC Library posted below to help you answer the research question through the final project assignments.
APA Citation
Explore social movement and political participation among the United States' young people. Learn more about what factors influence young people to participate in forms of protest and elections, what sets today's young adults apart from previous generations, and how young people use various forms of media and social media to fight for their causes.
Use the two scholarly research articles and one ebook from the PSCC Library posted below to help you answer the research question through completing the final project assignments.
APA Citation
At least historically, the American South has not had a reputation of being a beacon of acceptance for members of the LGBT+ community. Explore the lives of people who are transgender. The book by Halberstam provides an important foundation for the study of trans issues and trans* lives. The additional two articles use case studies with members of the trans community living in the south.
Use the two scholarly research articles and one ebook from the PSCC Library posted below to help you answer the research question through the final project assignments.
APA Citation
Although it will be several years before scientists, including sociologists, complete large-scale research studies of the COVID-19 pandemic, some work is beginning to be published. In this research topic, you will learn more about the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of a sociology of pandemics informed by the sociology of race and ethnicity and medical sociology.
Use the three scholarly research articles posted below to help you answer the research question through the final project assignments.
APA Citation
It comes as no surprise to hear that hip hop music is extremely popular, but what role does the hip hop movement play in American culture? In this topic, you will learn about the history of hip hop and how the hip hop movement constructs and critiques racial identities and the struggle for racial justice.
Use the two scholarly research articles and one ebook from the PSCC Library posted below to help you answer the research question through the final project assignments.
APA Citation
Explore three articles related to the sociology of housing. Specifically, you will learn more about the sociological study of housing, the housing bust and foreclosure crisis during the period commonly known as the Great Recession, and the ways in which that economic and housing crisis were related to insecure housing among America's poor.
Use the three scholarly research articles posted below to help you answer the research question through the final project assignments.
APA Citation
Unlike the other topic options, the readings for this topic originate from the edited book, Aesthetic Labour: Rethinking Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism, who are gender scholars at universities in the United Kingdom. Here is the book's description:
"This volume approaches questions about gender and the politics of appearance from a new perspective by developing the notion of aesthetic labour. Bringing together feminist writing regarding the ‘beauty myth’ with recent scholarship about new forms of work, the book suggests that in this moment of ubiquitous photography, social media, and 360 degree surveillance, women are increasingly required to be 'aesthetic entrepreneurs’, maintaining a constant state of vigilance about their appearance. The collection shows that this work is not just on the surface of bodies, but requires a transformation of subjectivity itself, characterised by notions of personal choice, risk-taking, self-management, and individual responsibility. The book includes analyses of online media, beauty service work, female genital cosmetic surgery, academic fashion, self-help literature and the seduction community, from a range of countries."
Use the three book chapters from this book, which are posted below, to help you answer the research question through the final project assignments..
APA Citation
This topic, which draws from the sociological research on health, medicine, technology, science, and the body seeks to understand how and why people use medicine as a kind of technique to improve their appearance or abilities. It is especially relevant to students who are majoring in health science fields, because you can learn more about a sociological approach to the study of health and wellness.
As one major source, you must use the book, Chemically Modified Bodies: The Use of Diverse Substances for Appearance Enhancement. Then, choose at least two of the articles below (for a minimum total of three sources) to answer the research question in the final project submission later in the semester.
APA Citation
Learn all about how society views people who are fat, the experiences of fat people in a thin-obsessed world, and how body capital (the use of the body as a kind of currency in public and in the workplace) in contemporary society leaves fat people facing real consequences.
Use the two ebooks from the PSCC Library and the scholarly journal article posted below to help you answer the research question through the final project assignments.
APA Citation
Explore the social and political structures surrounding food. Although food consumption may be considered an isolated preference, research in the sociology of food demonstrates how each of us are embedded within a much larger framework of food systems. The most meaningful system at work may be capitalism, since our world treats food as a commodity that is purchased. Other interwoven issues surround questions of food access and availability, food security or insecurity, and poverty.
Use the ebook and two scholarly research articles below to help you answer the research question. The book, Food and Poverty: Food Insecurity and Food Sovereignty Among America's Poor, provides a broad overview of the linkages between food insecurity, governmental programs, and poverty in our social structure. The two scholarly research articles have a narrower focus and delve into the experiences of food insecurity specifically among college or university students.
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